We usually get our bacon (& most other foodstuffs) from a selection of local farms. Good, honest, organic food. We had occasion to visit a supermarket yesterday, to stock up on some festive stuff, & we bought a pack of the most expensive bacon on offer. As I type this, I'm nursing a very sore eye. On frying said bacon, a small piece, complete with attendant hot oil, spat into my eye. &^*&^%^% that was painful. Anyhow, this is all because they bulk this crap out with brine. The water reacts with the hot oil, & hey presto, an injured & very pissed KIS! It's not only that, you get this horrible white scum on the bacon, & the fat takes forever to crisp, by wich time the meat is over cooked. This country is getting better than most western nations at not accepting this crap, & my area in particular is ahead of most, but when is this cheap processed food con going to stop? I will never buy supermarket bacon again!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a tree hugger, but I am now used to quality local country produce (including our own grown vegetables & fruit) and by comparison, that processed crap sucks. Not only that, it's much more expensive (due to transport & processing costs) & environmentally unsustainable. Not great on the welfare front either. GM crops are banned here, it's about time they banned this processed crap too! Why don't the health & safety morons jump on this, instead of banning our school children from playing conkers!!! Aaaarrrggghhhhhh.

I am with ya in a way but hard to rant about it when there are so many starving people in the world..That food may be bad for ya and all that but the reason it will never go away is cost.. An Oragnic apple here cost more than 3 non- organic apples. So for most people it's a question of either eating crap food or starving.

I am with ya in a way but hard to rant about it when there are so many starving people in the world..That food may be bad for ya and all that but the reason it will never go away is cost.. An Oragnic apple here cost more than 3 non- organic apples. So for most people it's a question of either eating crap food or starving.

Of course, you're right on the food poverty thing. Perhaps I should have just finished my rant with the bacon gripe. Bulking bacon with brine has nothing to do with reducing cost to the consumer, & everything to do with fooling people that they're getting better value. The meat is bulked, sometimes by up to 50%, so the perception is, you're getting more for your buck. The reality is, once you cook it, all that brine boils off, leaving you with much less food than you thought. It's actually more economical to get unprocessed stuff, & safer, lol!

On the organic cost issue (I know, I shouldn't have raised that), most organic stuff here is cheaper, if you don't buy it through regular food outlets. Even the cost in the major chains is now reducing considerably. Put simply, the more you produce organically, the cheaper it becomes. Organic produce in my county area now exceeds 40% of total production.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever prepared organic bacon. As much as people tout organic foods where I live, I live in Southern California - everything that's reasonably priced is processed. It's an integral part of our ever-burgeoning health care industry!

Salt, brine is obviously used as a preservative, but I find it unimaginable that the food companies think that their product is going to sit on the shelves for years. I don't eat a lot of soup because of the amount of sodium in the can. If this soup is going to sit that long on the shelf change your recipe so that people like it and will buy it. We are given salt at an early age and then feel without it there is no taste. I have no salt in my house. If it needs salt for flavor then I don't want it. But remember that the true test of manhood is frying bacon without a shirt.

But remember that the true test of manhood is frying bacon without a shirt.

Hahahaha, superb post Grunt! If I'd tried frying this water laden excuse for bacon, without a shirt, I'd have finished up like a reject from a "bed of nails" show!
Oh, & you're dead right about the salt thing too!

Salt use to be much more valuable than now, and is the root of our word salary. Because it was used to preserve meat for years, people were paid for their work in salt. But as I said the shelf life for canned goods is not 25 years. I just find it funny now that I have to pay more for reduced sodium foods when it should be cheaper since they using less product. Gotta love the irony.

There is nothing like fresh meat form an old fashioner butcher.
There are a few places left in Ct where I can get fresh unprocessed organic meat and poultry.
My Sister in Law who lives in Maine also sends me fresh organic beef a few times a year.
There is also a butcher near Stowe Vermont that I obtain fresh meat and low fat, salt free sausage from.
I can't have high fat, salt, and processed foods because I am on a diet as a result of a stroke.
Bacon is way off the list of foods that I can eat!
I have to buy all of my meat products unprocessed because they add salt and other preservatives that I can't have.

I have hunted deer, wild turkey, pheasants, and ducks for years but as I have become middle aged I no longer have the will to kill.
This is the first year that I can remember when I did not go hunting.
I did get a freezer full of venison and fowl from friends who hunt this year though.

I watched a show that showed how processed bacon was made.
They spray artificial maple flavor on the bacon that is advertised as maple smoked.
The meat was never smoked at all! It was cooked in a gas oven in the factory.

One advantage of being a vegetarian is not dealing with the meat that gets pedaled to us at the local supermarket. Some of it is very good, but for me the biggest issue is the disassociation between the product and the consumer. I have no idea where that meat is from or how the animal was handled - except in limited cases like limited, local produce. That's why I don't eat meat any more and why (when I started shopping for myself after leaving home) I rarely bought meat and if I did, always tried to get high quality meat.

Just what is salt? As common as salt is to our tables, we have come to accept its presence in our lives as ordinary. But in the not-too-distant past, wars were fought over its possession and civilizations rose and fell in pursuit of what came to be called “white gold.” In times past, common rock salt was given to the common people and the highly valued crystal salt, like Original Himalayan Crystal Salt®, was reserved for royalty.

Primitive man had no concerns about salt. He got his daily requirement of salt from consuming the blood of the animals he ate.

We know that blood consists of mostly salt and a full complement of minerals. In this way, early civilizations received the benefits of salt and its included mineral nutrients.

As humans became civilized and moved towards agriculture and the domestication of animals, the demand for salt increased. Besides being valued as a seasoning, we discovered the ability of salt to preserve food. This freed us from our dependency on seasonal availability of food as we could now preserve our food. This opened the possibility for traveling and carrying our food with us.

But salt was always difficult to come by and it became a highly valued item of trade. So valued in fact, that it served as a monetary exchange. The early Romans controlled the price of salt and would increase the price to fund their wars then reduce the price so as to make salt available to the common citizen. In fact, Roman soldiers were paid in salt. The word salary comes from the Latin world salarium, which means payment in salt. Sal is Latin for salt. This is also the time when the phrase “worth ones salt” originated. The Romans actually built roads specifically for making the transportation of salt more convenient. One such road, the Via Salaria, led from Rome to the Adriatic sea, where salt was produced by evaporating sea water, a common method still used today.

There are stories surrounding salt throughout American history. Salt is thought to be a major factor in the outcome of many wars fought on American soil. During the Revolutionary War, the British used Americans who were loyal to the British crown to intercept the rebels' salt supply. This action destroyed the rebels’ ability to preserve food. During the War of 1812, soldiers in the field received salt brine as payment because the government was too poor to pay them with money. Prior to Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the West, President Jefferson referred in his address to Congress about a mountain of salt believed to lie near the Missouri River, which would have been of enormous value if the two pioneers could verify the story.

Gandhi

If it were not for Mahatma Gandhi’s famous “salt march,” in 1930, an act of non-violent protest to the British salt tax in Colonial India, India might still be forced to buy salt from England. At that time the British controlled the trade of salt among most of the world. The British monopoly on the salt trade in India dictated that the sale or production of salt by anyone but the British government was a criminal offence punishable by law. It became illegal for any Indian to produce salt. They were forced to buy their salt from the British government even though salt was readily available to coastal area dwellers. As the tax had an impact on the entire country of India, Gandhi knew that his decision to protest would gain national appeal across regional, religious, class, and ethnic barriers. Even the Indian government, aware of the commercial importance of their own salt and the public sentiment towards the issue, stood in support of the protest. At the end of his 240 mile, 23 day walk to the sea on April 5, 1930, Gandhi picked up a handful of salty mud and proclaimed, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” He proceeded to boil some seawater, illegally producing the controversial commodity. He then implored his followers to begin making salt all along the coast, wherever it “was most convenient and comfortable” to them, not to the British Empire.

History of Salt In Religion

There are even Biblical references to salt. In the New Testament, Matthew 15:3, Jesus speaking to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth.” It is commonly believed that he was telling them how valuable they were. My personal interpretation is that he meant to remind them that they, as physical bodies, are nothing more than salt. Their real value lay within them, as spirit or soul. He was reminding them not to pay too much attention to the physical body, but give higher regard to their spiritual essence. Interestingly, what remains when a human body is cremated is nothing but a pile of salt.

Salt has a long history of use in rituals of purification, magical protection, and blessing. Salt has been used throughout the ages as a ward against negative energies or evil spirits. In Germany, salt was put into the corners of the home where newlyweds were to reside to dispel any “bad” or negative energy. In Jewish tradition, they dip their Challah or bread in salt on Shabbat. We remember in the Old Testament that Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt. Again, the reference to salt as a basic elemental component of the physical body.

How about the word “salvation”? Sal is Latin for salt where salt has been used traditionally in the Catholic church for a number of purifying rituals. Take a close look at Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper. You’ll see how Jesus’ disciple, Judas, has spilled over a bowl of salt, an absolving and an omen of the evil or wrong deed about to be perpetrated. We still keep this tradition alive today when we throw a pinch of salt over our shoulder to ward off any evil spirit that may be behind our backs.

Sumo wrestlers of Japan throw salt into the ring before a match to purify and sanctify the area and drive away any evil spirits.

I live in southern california, and I hadn't ate bacon in years, last month, while visiting my parents in Oklahoma, the bacon was so good...just unreal...I ate bacon all day, all night..every day....nummy